Important Takeaways:
- Raising a child is getting more expensive – but the problem is worse in these 5 states
- High inflation has made the price of just about everything in the U.S. more expensive — including how much it costs to raise a child.
- “The cost of everything is rising,” said Matt Schulz, LendingTree chief credit analyst. “There’s so much that goes into child care, including rent, payroll, insurance and much more. When all those costs shoot up, the overall cost of child care does, too.”
- The cost of child care surged nearly 20% between 2016 and 2021
- That means the typical family is spending about $237,482 over the course of 18 years to raise a child — and that is excluding the cost of college.
- However, new research published by SmartAsset suggests that the problem is even worse in some states.
- Raising a child in Massachusetts costs an estimated $35,841 a year – the most expensive state in the country and nearly double the national average.
- The annual cost of raising a child in Hawaii is $35,049, which includes about $19,500 for child care. One of the largest expenses in the Aloha State is housing, according to the study. Adding a child to a two-family household costs an additional $6,188 per year. By comparison, that adds about $4,983 in Massachusetts.
- It is notably cheaper to raise children in a handful of Southern states.
- Mississippi ranked as the least expensive, coming in with a total cost of $16,151. That is followed by Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and Alabama.
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Important Takeaways:
- Many Americans consider fast food to be a ‘luxury’ good since prices have skyrocketed
- Fast food is beloved in America because it is cheap and convenient.
- At least it used to be.
- The recent inflation report for April showed that since President Biden took office, the cost of eating out at restaurants is up nearly 22%. However, fast food has been hit particularly hard, with prices dramatically rising at the most popular restaurant chains beginning even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Gone, too, are the days of the $5 Footlong at Subway. A BLT Footlong that cost $5.50 in 2019 now costs customers $8.49 in 2024, though prices can vary by location. Additionally, Chipotle’s beloved chicken burrito that cost $6.50 in 2019 now runs customers $10.70.
- Fast-food executives have pointed to rising wages and increased costs for ingredients as factors driving up the prices on their menus.
- Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that fast-food prices have actually increased faster than the average hourly earnings of most employees at fast-food restaurants. Fast-food prices have also outpaced inflation, rising 41% from 2017, while the consumer price index has increased by 35.9%.
- A recent survey conducted by LendingTree found 78% of consumers now consider fast food to be a “luxury” purchase due to how expensive the meals have become.
- The financial strain means fewer people are visiting the drive-thru. The findings show three out of four Americans typically eat fast-food once a week, but 62% of respondents said they are eating it less frequently due to the cost.
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Important Takeaways:
- Amazon Workers Say They Struggle to Afford Food, Rent
- Five years after Amazon.com Inc. raised wages to $15 an hour, half of warehouse workers surveyed by researchers say they struggle to afford enough food or a place to live.
- The national study, published Wednesday by the University of Illinois Chicago’s Center for Urban Economic Development, asked US employees about their economic wellbeing, including whether they’d skipped meals, went hungry, or were worried about being able to make rent or mortgage payments.
- Fifty-three percent of respondents reported that they’d experienced one or more forms of food insecurity in the prior three months, and 48% experienced one or more forms of housing insecurity. Workers who said they took unpaid time off after getting hurt on the job were more likely to report trouble paying their bills, the researchers found.
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Important Takeaways:
- Americans are down on the economy (again), with inflation topping election concerns
- After a spurt of optimism, Americans are feeling a little more glum about the economy — again.
- Consumer sentiment, a gauge of Americans’ economic perceptions, is at a six-month low, according to a closely watched index by the University of Michigan. The measure notched its biggest drop since 2021, reflecting the persistent tug of inflation on household budgets and fueling fears that rising prices, unemployment and interest rates could all worsen in the coming months.
- That pessimism is altering consumers’ spending habits. McDonald’s, Home Depot, Under Armour and Starbucks all recently reported disappointing earnings, as people cut back on fast food, kitchen renovations, sneakers and afternoon lattes. Retail sales were flat in April after decent pickups in February and March. Meanwhile, Walmart reported a strong first quarter this week, nudged upward by high-income shoppers, executives said.
- And gas prices, while easing in recent weeks, are up overall for the year, just ahead of the busy summer season.
- In recent weeks, some of the country’s largest companies have mentioned they are feeling the effects of inflation. At Starbucks, for example, customers are coming in less frequently.
- “We continue to feel the impact of a more cautious consumer,” Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan said in an earnings call last month. “Many customers are being more exacting about where and how they choose to spend their money, particularly with stimulus savings mostly spent.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Joe Did That: Inflation Costs Americans an Extra $1K Monthly
- Thanks to the wonders of Bidenomics, the average American is spending over a thousand dollars extra a month. Fortunately, Biden is focused on important things — like funding jihad supporters in Gaza and paying off student loans with taxpayer money the government cannot spare.
- From Fox Business:
- The typical U.S. household needed to pay $227 more a month in March to purchase the same goods and services it did one year ago because of still-high inflation, according to calculations from Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi shared with FOX Business.
- Americans are paying on average $784 more each month compared with the same time two years ago and $1,069 more compared with three years ago, before the inflation crisis began… when compared with January 2021, shortly before the inflation crisis began, prices remain up a stunning 18.94%.
- Food, child care, and rent — the necessities — are devastatingly expensive under the Biden administration. Fox quoted Bright MLS chief economist Lisa Sturtevant, “Inflation has not just stalled, but it is moving in the wrong direction.” Unfortunately, low-income Americans — those who can least afford to spend more — are of course hardest hit by rising costs.
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Important Takeaways:
- Another One Bites the Dust With Bidenomics: Family Dollar and Dollar Tree to Close 1,000 Stores
- As my colleague Bonchie pointed out earlier Wednesday, if Sleepy Joe and crew expected a bounce from the State of the Union yell fest, what they received was a thud. Panic Time for Democrats As Joe Biden Gets No Bump From Terrible State of the Union Speech
- Family Dollar, the struggling discount chain that caters to low-income customers predominantly in cities, will close about 1,000 stores as inflation takes a bite out of consumers’ wallets and low-cost-retailers’ profits.
- Family Dollar will close 600 locations in the first half of 2024 and 370 stores over the next several years as store leases expire.
- Dollar Tree, which owns Family Dollar, also said it will close 30 stores as leases expire
- Inflation gave Team Bidenomics a swift kick in the pants. It rose by 0.4% in February, the highest monthly increase since September, pushing the year-to-year rate to 3.2%, compared to 3.1% for the January year-to-year rate. Economists had expected a 3.1% year-to-year rate in February.
- The White House is pushing the story that “volatile” gasoline prices—and probably predatory price-gouging by gas station owners—are to blame, but the data say something different. The Core Consumer Price Index has increased steadily for seven months.
- A couple more increases like this over the next couple of months leading into the summer are probably going to put some doubt into whether or not the Fed will reduce interest rates in any way
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Important Takeaways:
- The typical American household must spend an additional $11,434 annually just to maintain the same standard of living they enjoyed in January of 2021, right before inflation soared to 40-year highs, according to a recent analysis of government data.
- Such figures underscore the financial squeeze many families continue to face even as the rate of U.S. inflation recedes and the economy by many measures remains strong, with the jobless rate at a two-decade low. The analysis, from Republican members of the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee, taps government data such as the Consumer Price Index and Consumer Expenditure Survey to examine the impact of inflation state by state.
- Even so, many Americans say they aren’t feeling those gains, and this fall more people reported struggling financially than they did prior to the pandemic, according to CBS News polling. Inflation is the main reason Americans express pessimism about economy despite its bright points, which also include stronger wage gains in recent years.
- The Biden administration called the analysis “flawed.”
- Around the U.S., the state with the highest additional expenditures to afford the same standard of living compared with 2021 is Colorado, where a household must spend an extra $15,000 per year, the JEC analysis found. Residents in Arkansas, meanwhile, have to spend the least to maintain their standard of living, at about $8,500 on an annual basis.
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Important Takeaways:
- PA food supplier warns Americans getting squeezed by inflation are becoming ‘resistant’ to higher prices
- As the Keystone State saw inflation last year dig deeper into residents’ wallets than any other state, one Philly-based food supplier is warning that the fight may not be over yet.
- The Philadelphia-based produce supplier has been caught between higher input costs and consumers struggling to pay for inflationary prices. According to Consumer Affairs, Pennsylvania saw the highest grocery inflation rate of any state in 2023, at an 8.2% increase year-over-year.
- The typical U.S. household needed to pay $213 more a month in January to purchase the same goods and services it did one year ago because of still-high inflation, according to new calculations from Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi.
- Americans are paying on average $605 more each month compared with the same time two years ago and $1,019 more compared with three years ago, before the inflation crisis began.
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Important Takeaways:
- Inflation may be rapidly cooling, but there’s one area that continues to eat away at Americans’ budgets: Stubbornly high food prices.
- Rising food costs were one contributor to the hotter-than-expected inflation report on Tuesday, with food prices rising 0.4% in January from December, a faster pace than the overall 0.3% rise in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
- The CPI, a basket of goods and services typically bought by Americans, measures two types of food purchases, groceries and “food away from home,” or restaurant and other prepared meals. Both are rising, but restaurant prices are increasing at a faster pace, jumping 5.1% on an annual basis compared with a 1.2% increase in grocery costs.
- Any increase in food prices may be especially painful to American consumers, given that supermarket prices are now 25% higher than in January 2020, while inflation has increased 19% over that same time. That means even though grocery costs are now rising at a slower pace than in the depth of the pandemic’s inflationary spike, the same shopping basket still costs more than a month or a year ago, a fact that has soured many consumers on the economy.
- The reason for inflation’s stubborn hold on food prices can be linked to a number of issues, from higher labor costs at manufacturers that trickle down to consumers, to record-low cattle numbers that are driving up the cost of beef and steak.
- But some policy experts see other issues at work: Corporations, they claim, are increasing prices simply because they can. President Joe Biden last month warned that companies are “ripping people off” with a combination of price gouging, “greedflation” and shrinkflation.
- In fact, five types of food have been responsible for 30% of grocery inflation in recent years… They are beef and veal; poultry; non-frozen, non-carbonated juices and drinks; fresh fruits and vegetables; and snacks.
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Important Takeaways:
- Prices rose more than expected in January as inflation won’t go away
- Inflation rose more than expected in January as stubbornly high shelter prices weighed on consumers, the Labor Department reported Tuesday.
- The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of the prices shoppers face for goods and services across the economy, increased 0.3% for the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. On a 12-month basis, that came out to 3.1%, down from 3.4% in December.
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